Honey, Honey - Abba

I saw this single on display at the Abba Museum in Stockholm last year and I thought this sleeve was absolutely beautiful. Not even necessarily the photograph, but the layout was just very stylish. I actually blame the Abba Museum for igniting my recent obsession with different Abba pressings, which I've started collecting since then. 

Anyway, this is the Spanish pressing of 'Honey, Honey', which includes 'Hasta mañana' on the B-side. The single was released by Carnaby, the label to which Abba was signed at the time. The single was released in 1974, after their legendary Eurovision win with 'Waterloo'. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7879
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: 'Honey, Honey' / 'Hasta mañana' 

Modern girl - Sheena Easton

Having bought a Japanese version of '9 to 5' at the record fair last week, I found another Japanese single from Sheena Easton with a different dealer that day. This time it was a version of 'Modern girl', re-released in a regular single sleeve (as opposed to the record company sleeve with an accompanying sheet of paper, as per usual in Japan). 

It was a curiosity, and a curiosity I wanted to have. Fortunately it was another one of those Japanese bargains stands, so I gleefully paid a few euros to own this beauty.

My collection: 7" single no. 7878
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: 'Modern girl' / 'Paradox' 

Citations Ininterrompues - Café Creme

Café Creme was a French group formed by Jacky Arconte, Daniel Martigny, Frédéric Grenier and Denis Hekimian. They became popular in the second half of the Seventies with cover versions of Beatles songs. 

'Citations Ininterrompues' was released internationally as 'Unlimited Citations'. It was basically a long medley of Beatles songs, released on 7" and 12" singles in various countries. The Japanese sleeve was markedly different from the other sleeves, with this colourful illustration. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7877
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: 'Citations Ininterrompues (partie 1)' / 'Citations Ininterrompues (partie 2)'

99 Luftballons - Nena

When you compare the sleeve of '99 Luftballons' as it was released in Europe with this Japanese sleeve you notice that there's a lot of added characters - in Japanese, of course!

The orange star in the upper right corner proclaims: U.S. big hit. And indeed, the English version reached number 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Whether this single was a big hit in Japan is unknown. Another interesting fact: the B-side is 'Nur geträumt', which was another single in Europe.

My collection: 7" single no. 7876
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: '99 Luftballons' / 'Nur geträumt'

Super trouper - Abba

This sleeve of 'Super Trouper' may look familiar to you, but this is a really odd release. It couples the song not with 'The piper', as per usual on European releases, but with 'On and on and on', the song that famously was released on 12" singles only in Europe.

This single was made in Brazil, which might explain this strange coupling of tracks. It's this kind of exceptions that make an impression on me. The reasoning behind it will probably never be cleared up.

My collection: 7" single no. 7875
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: 'Super trouper' / 'On and on and on' 

4 sucessos - Kate Bush, Harpo, Lucifer, Arjan Brass

Mention 4 sucessos to any Kate Bush fan and they're likely to break out in a cold sweat. There were four of these Brazilian EP's featuring Kate, and two of them even included four tracks by Kate alone. Those two are prohibitively expensive; the other two not so much. I was lucky enough to find a copy of one of the other two: a compilation of four different songs by four different artists. 

This EP has the weird distinction of containing, besides Kate, a track by a Swedish artist (Harpo), a Dutch solo artist (Arjan Brass) and a Dutch band (Lucifer). As for Kate, this EP features her debut single, 'Wuthering heights'.  

My collection: 7" single no. 7874
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: 'Wuthering heights' (Kate Bush), 'San Franciscan nights' (Harpo) / 'Self pity' (Lucifer), 'Leonie' (Arjan Brass) 

New York groove - Ace Frehley

I would really like to have the picture sleeve of this single, but a quick look on Discogs earlier this year made me realize that in order to have a complete copy (i.e. with a picture sleeve and the included mask) it would set me back a considerable sum. So when I saw this single at the record fair last week I decided I would just get it for the music instead of the pictures.

After all, Ace Frehley passed away last month, and traditionally that means that any items bearing his name will only become more expensive, not less. 'New York groove' is a decent track, taken from his 'solo' album, released when all four members of Kiss released a 'solo' album. It was the perfect marketing trick, although some argued that the strength of the band lay in the four working together, not apart.

My collection: 7" single no. 7873
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 15 November 2025
Tracks: 'New York groove' / 'Snow blind'